NGDC Natural Hazards
NOAA > NESDIS > NGDC > MGG > Natural Hazards
Historical Natural Hazards Data Archive
The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) is one of three NOAA national data centers operated by the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS). NOAA/NGDC also operates the World Data Center for Solid Earth Geophysics. NGDC/WDC is responsible for scientific data management of global and regional data including ecosystems, geomagnetism, gravity, and natural hazards.
Natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes affect both coastal and inland areas. Long-term data from these events can be used to establish the past record of natural hazard event occurrences, which is important for planning, response, and mitigation of future events. The National Geophysical Data Center plays a major role in post-event data collection. The data in this archive is gathered from scientific and scholarly sources, regional and worldwide catalogs, tide gauge reports, individual event reports, and unpublished works.
Data included in this archive:
Tsunami Source Events: information about the sources of tsunami events. Most tsunamis are caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides.
Tsunami Observations: information about locations where tsunami effects occurred.
Significant Earthquakes: information about destructive earthquakes that meet at least one of the following criteria: moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), 10 or more deaths, magnitude 7.5 or greater, Modified Mercalli Intensity X or greater, or the earthquake generated a tsunami.
Significant Volcanic Eruptions: information about eruptions that meet at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), caused a tsunami, or the eruption was associated with a major earthquake.
Usage Tips:
Each hazard type is contained in a separate folder. Each folder is further divided into subfolders containing historic date ranges.

Tsunami Source Events
NOAA > NESDIS > NGDC > MGG > Natural Hazards > Tsunami Data
Historical Tsunami Source Event Data
A tsunami is a series of waves generated by an impulsive disturbance in the ocean or in a small, connected body of water. These waves sometimes inflict severe damage to property and pose a threat to life in coastal communities. The Tsunami Source Event database is a listing of historical tsunami source event locations that range in date from 2000 B.C. to the present. It is related to the Tsunami Observations (Runups) database which contains information on the locations where tsunami effects occurred.
To display additional information about a specific tsunami event, click on the "Get more details from NGDC Natural Hazards website" link in the event's popup balloon. Many of the tsunami events in the database have associated observations of the tsunami's effects. To display the observations for a specific event, click the "show tsunami event and observations" link in the event's popup balloon.
For more information on the contents of the database and the quality of the data, please see the Tsunami Database Introduction.

Tsunami Observations
NOAA > NESDIS > NGDC > MGG > Natural Hazards > Tsunami Data
Historical Tsunami Observation Data
A tsunami is a series of waves generated by an impulsive disturbance in the ocean or in a small, connected body of water. These waves sometimes inflict severe damage to property and pose a threat to life in coastal communities. The NGDC tsunami database is a listing of historical tsunami source events and observation locations throughout the world that range in date from 2000 B.C. to the present. The Historical Tsunami Observation database provides information on locations where tsunami effects occurred. It is related to the Tsunami Source Event database which contains information on the source of the tsunami.
To display additional information about a specific tsunami observation, click on the "Get more details from NGDC Natural Hazards website" link in the observation's popup balloon. Click "Show Tsunami Source Event and Observations on map" to display the associated tsunami event and all of its observations.
The symbol for each tsunami observation is extruded above the surface at a height proportional to the maximum wave height recorded at that location. This can be seen by zooming in close to a coastline and tilting the view so the height of each observation symbol can be seen.
For more information on the contents of the database and the quality of the data, please see the Tsunami Database Introduction.

Significant Earthquakes
NOAA > NESDIS > NGDC > MGG > Natural Hazards > Earthquake Data
Historical Significant Earthquake Data
This catalog is a listing of historical significant earthquakes throughout the world that range in date from 2150 B.C. to the present. The list includes all events that meet at least one of the following criteria:
Caused fatalities
Caused damage to property
Generated a Tsunami
Magnitude 7.5 or greater
Intensity X or greater (for events lacking magnitude)
To display additional information about a specific earthquake event, click on the "Get more details from NGDC Natural Hazards website" link in the event's popup balloon. If the earthquake caused a tsunami, click "Show associated tsunami event and observations on map" to display the tsunami event and its observations.
For more information on the contents of the database and the quality of the data, see the Significant Earthquakes Introduction.

Significant Volcanic Eruptions
NOAA > NESDIS > NGDC > MGG > Natural Hazards > Volcano Data
Historical Significant Volcanic Eruption Data
The NGDC Significant Volcanic Eruptions database is a listing of eruptions from that range in date from 4350 B.C. to the present. A significant eruption is classified as one that meets at least one of the following criteria:
Caused fatalities
Caused damage to property
Generated a tsunami
Was associated with a major earthquake
To display additional information about a specific volcanic eruption event, click on the "Get more details from NGDC Natural Hazards website" link in the event's popup balloon. If the eruption caused a tsunami, click "Show associated tsunami event and observations on map" to display the tsunami event and its observations.
For a complete list of current and past activity for all volcanoes on the planet active during the last 10,000 years, please see Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP).
To see the locations of all volcanoes (active and inactive), turn on the "volcanoes" layer under the "geographic features" folder in Google Earth (data also from the Smithsonian Institution).

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